Expedia Hides American Fares After Orbitz Pullout

There's a new battle ongoing, and it's one heavy on the politics. Not
unlike the internal software wars between Apple and Microsoft, Expedia
is waging war against American Airlines shortly after AA cut their fares
out entirely from Orbitz. This past week, American decided that they'd
rather not sell tickets through Orbitz. The reasons are numerous, but
it's obviously heavily political. So now, when you search for a flight
somewhere, American's fares aren't there for comparison.

Obviously Expedia, which is in the same market as Orbitz, isn't too
happy about that kind of strong-arm tactic. These online travel sites
stay in business because shoppers know they can compare rates from
across the airline industry, and there's a very real fear that this kind
of tactic could ruin the likes or Orbitz and Expedia. Imagine if all
airlines followed American's lead, and took their fares away from search
engines. Disaster. And airlines definitely have a history of copying
each other; just look at bag fees.

So now, Expedia is making it very difficult to find the fares of
American Airlines. For starters, they aren't even listed on the initial
search result page (see below).

And even when you click to See more Airlines, you have to click yet
again to get the engine to search for AA's prices (see below).

Here's a direct quote from Expedia: "This has been done in light of both
American Airlines' recent decision
to prevent Orbitz from selling its inventory and a possible disruption
in Expedia's ability to sell American Airlines tickets when our contract
with American Airlines expires." Definitely fighting words, and this
war definitely isn't close to over. This is just one of the many digital
wars that are bound to take place as the Internet becomes more and more
powerful.

Updated with a comment from Expedia:

"We have been unable to reach an agreement with American Airlines due to
American Airlines’ new commercial strategy that we believe is anti-consumer and
anti-choice. American Airlines is
attempting to introduce a new direct connect model that will result in higher
costs and reduced transparency for consumers, making it difficult to compare
American Airlines' ticket prices and
options with offerings by other airlines.
American Airlines’ direct connect model is of questionable, if any,
benefit to travelers, would be costly to build and maintain and would compromise
travel agents’ ability to provide travelers with the best selection.

As a result, the sale of American Airlines flights on our website has
been suspended. We remain open to
doing business with American Airlines on terms that are satisfactory to Expedia
and do not compromise our ability to provide consumers with the products and
services they need.

We
cannot support efforts that we believe are fundamentally bad for travelers. With or without American Airlines’
inventory, we have a robust supply base and broad array of choices for our
customers and we continue to offer hundreds of flight options for the routes
served by American Airlines."